Neville Lahiru
With 2024 almost here, SLT appears to be prepping for a new home broadband offering. The telecom operator recently shared teasers about “a new home broadband experience” on social media. SLT followed this up hinting “unlimited internet” and “free data.” The company further indicated that existing broadband users may get free unlimited data and higher download/upload speeds. It’s worth taking things with a grain of salt, particularly given the history of internet service providers’ marketing practices. Nevertheless, SLT’s teasers already appear to have piqued general consumer interest.
Coincidentally, several SLT fiber connection owners recently reported unusually high speeds, with download rates inching close to 1Gbps. The high speeds only lasted for a day, followed by SLT’s ambiguous teasers on an upcoming broadband package on social media. While the telco has yet to provide concrete details, many now speculate that the speeds in question were in fact a test run and that consumers could likely expect a new gigabit fiber offering in some form.
Of course, this isn’t the first time SLT launched something for the new year. Back in 2018, SLT kicked off the year with promise of free unlimited data for a day. However, things didn’t pan out as SLT might have expected. Many users instead had to contend with barely 1Mbps speeds. Six years later, SLT is hinting at another free data offer, this time seemingly bundled in a fiber package.
Higher speeds and free unlimited data?
It should be pointed out that this pending announcement comes at a time when an increase in taxation is set to take effect beginning 2024. The increase in VAT from 15% to 18% will impact all sectors including the telecom industry. Dialog’s detailed breakdown of the price increase states that effective January 1, 2024, the total tax on local calls/SMS, VAS, and PayTV will be 42.02% alongside a 23.5% total tax on data, WiFi, and IDD calls.
It also doesn’t help that true unlimited internet still remains unavailable to Sri Lankan consumers. Nearly every unlimited internet broadband package today is either capped at a specific speed/time or is restricted to certain services. But despite thiss, telcos continue to actively promote these connections as unlimited internet. In fact, the company’s latest teaser on Facebook roughly translates to “wouldn’t you like it if you got free unlimited data and much higher internet speeds on January 1st?”
While a true unlimited data offering can’t be ruled out, history suggests that the “free unlimited data” will likely include a few asterisks. Of course, higher internet speeds will be a welcome change for consumers in general. However, those higher speeds will only go so far for broadband packages with capped data. For instance, surfing at 800Mbps is a notable upgrade from the typical fiber connection speeds, but the benefit will only last as long as the allotted data is used for particular services and/or at a certain time.
In any case, it will be interesting to see how SLT’s “new home broadband experience” will take shape. As of now, SLT’s fiber packages starts at LKR 1,790 for a 100GB (60GB free data) connection going all the way to LKR 75,000 for a 1Gbps 5TB connection that’s bundled with its “Unlimited Entertainment” pack.
GIPHY App Key not set. Please check settings